Photo courtesy of Volunteer Maryland

Katrin Patterson ’11, a double major in anthropology and gender and women’s studies, was featured this month on the Volunteer Maryland website for her role with Ardmore Enterprises, through which she will launch a volunteer program that will bring more awareness to the capabilities of individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities

Read the Volunteer Maryland story here.

Patterson, who graduated cum laude, was a France and Merrick Scholarship and the Walter Sondheim Maryland Non-Profit Leadership Scholarship, as well as a member of the President’s Commission for Women. After graduation, she traveled to the University of Botswana on a Fulbright research grant to study the gendered and psychosocial dynamics of HIV transmission. In addition to her work with Ardmore, she’s also in the process of applying to graduate schools of public health.

We asked Katrin to answer a few questions about her experiences.

Q:  How did you wind up working with Ardmore Enterprises?
A:  I didn’t choose Ardmore so much as they chose me. I applied very late in the application cycle, and Ardmore was one of the last (Volunteer Maryland) partner sites that had not yet chosen a Volunteer Maryland Coordinator. After interviewing with and being accepted by Ardmore, I took the contract because I felt like it would be an interesting and challenging experience. I have no formal experience working for or with individuals with developmental or intellectual disabilities so I was curious to see how I would grow through the experience. Even within the first couple of months, I have been confronted with all manner of personal and professional learning experiences; at times frustrating, at others enlightening, there’s rarely a dull moment at Ardmore as we work to develop and implement a volunteer program and gear up for our 50th anniversary next year!

Q:  What are your plans for the future?
A:  I would love to go into health education. Both my time as a Fulbright Student and as a VMC have shown me that there are a lot of misperceptions and misinformation about health and illness, and I am eager to rectify the situation. I am particularly interested in community-based health programs and health education for women, and so am looking to build upon and connect the two BAs I have from UMBC in either a Master’s or doctorate program. Health is not a uni-dimensional aspect of a person or their community, and public health is a field that recognizes this.

Q: Did any experiences at UMBC especially prepare you for what you’re doing now?
A:  I would definitely say that UMBC helped to impart a strong sense of service and civic responsibility to me. I lived in the Shriver Living-Learning Community for my first two years at UMBC (the first year as a resident, the second as the Community’s resident assistant), and all of the service I completed shaped the way I approach service now. I had a lot of opportunities to develop leadership skills by participating in an ASB to West Virginia, participating in a STRiVE retreat, and being an undergraduate teaching assistant for the GES department. I remember feeling very supported and empowered by both individuals and organizations on campus (the Women’s Center comes to mind!), and all of those influences have come together to allow me to approach my current position as a VMC with confidence, creativity, and empathy.

Katrin was also profiled in a feature on UMBC’s Class of 2011. Read it here.

Maryland State Delegate Jon Cardin ’96, MPP, has formed an exploratory committee for a potential run for Maryland attorney general in 2014, according to an AP article published in the Daily Record. Cardin, who is the nephew of the recently re-elected U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, is currently serving his third term as delegate for Baltimore County.

The AP story notes, “According to a report in the Gazette newspapers of Montgomery County, Jon Cardin will be holding a fundraiser for the exploratory committee on Dec. 4 at a private home in Baltimore.”

Cardin, who has represented residents of northwest Baltimore County since 2003, serves on the Ways and Means Committee. He was honored as UMBC Outstanding Alumnus of the Year for the Social and Behavioral Sciences in 2009.

This is the third in a series of blog articles highlighting many of the excellent case studies AASHE has received for our campus sustainability case study database (AASHE Member-only resource). Virtually all of the case studies in the database have been submitted as part of our annual awards program. Although we can only recognize a few campus submissions as "official winners," there are many exemplary case studies in the database worthy of recognition and wide dissemination (this is also a reminder to our campus readers to submit to our awards program and database. We know you have great case studies to share!).

This week's highlight comes from Yale University and provides a roadmap for successfully creating departmental/unit specific sustainability action plans.

Authored by Amber Garrard, Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Yale Office of Sustainability, the case study describes a unique program designed to guide departments within a larger institution in creating department/unit-specific Sustainability Action Plans.

The case study overview and background is included below;
"The Yale Office of Sustainability developed the Roadmap manual and tools in 2011 and piloted the program with nine University departments over the academic year. The Roadmap is designed to become an online program that departments can use with minimal direct support and cost to develop a sense of ownership over sustainability planning. Roadmap provides a crucial component to institutional sustainability—allowing more effective research, assessment, and strategic planning to occur on the ground level.

The Roadmap to Sustainability was originally conceived of as a complement to Yale University’s Sustainability Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan, endorsed by Yale’s President Levin in 2010, synthesized overarching goals and policies in sustainability for the entire University; the Roadmap was designed to support on-the-ground realization of these goals through individual departments. During the summer of 2011, a summer research fellow in the Yale Office of Sustainability created an elaborate set of tools, templates, and guidelines for department leaders, with the ultimate goal of creating a Departmental Sustainability Action Plan. The following school year (2011-2012), another undergraduate Research Assistant and the Assistant Director of the Office of Sustainability piloted these materials with nine departments from across campus."

To read the full case study including sections on project implementation, timeline, financing, results and lessons learned please visit, "Roadmap to Sustainability for Departmental Planning".

Additional information is also available from the Yale Office of Sustainability website.